Pictures: Boro Under-21s narrowly beaten by Tottenham Hotspur counterparts

Boro lost 1-0 to Spurs Under-21s at the Riverside Stadium with a goal from Gallifuoco in the 81st minute

By Shaun Wilson

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Ian Cooper

Boro Under-21s v Tottenham Under-21s match action

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Despite creating several chances, Boro Under-21s went down 1-0 to their Tottenham Hotspur counterparts at the Riverside Stadium last night.

After an early period of Spurs dominance, Boro grew into the game and had chances through Ryan Brobbel and Lewis Maloney but on both occasions visiting stopper Giancarlo Gallifuoco managed to block.

Just after the half-hour mark, Mark Kitching nearly scored the goal of the season but, after weaving through the entire Spurs defence, he slid his shot past the post.

Spurs had a penalty claim turned down early in the second half when Maloney challenged Nathan Oduwa.

On 60 minutes Jordan Jones saw a right-foot shot fizz past the post after an attempted clearance.

Then Jayson Leutwiler was called into action on 70 minutes, pulling off a smart stop from Spurs skipper Shaquile Coulthirst.

The deadlock was broken on 81 minutes when a free-kick was swung in from the right where it was met by Gallifuoco who headed in despite pressure from Boro’s Dan Burn.

BORO: Leutwiler; B Halliday, Burn, Weledji, Meling, Tinkler (Griffiths 87), Jones (Fowler 81), Maloney (Sirrell 73), Fewster, Kitching, Brobbel (c). Subs: Okosieme, Fryer.

SPURS: McGee, McEneff (McQueen 73), Ogilvie, Lesniak, Ball, Gallifuoco, McEvoy (Coulibaly 59), Winks (Dombaxe 51), Coulthirst (c), Lameiras, Oduwa. Subs: Priestley.